Renegade Ops Released for PC, Sometimes Works

After a string of last minute setbacks, Sega is happy to announce that Avalanche Studios’ twin-stick vehicular shooter Renegade Ops has finally been released for the PC. Steam, Direct2Drive, and GamersGate all list it as available for immediate download, while GameStop’s Impulse service still lists it as a pre-purchase item at the time of this posting.

Help General Bryant defeat Inferno, the madman set on world domination, by blasting enemies to bits across a range of stunning environments, using a variety of vehicles and explosives. Join the Renegade Ops and fight alone in single player mode, team up offline with two-player split screen or join the dynamic 4-player online co-op experience.

Renegade Ops was built using a modified version of the Avalanche 2.0 engine used for Just Cause 2. Rather than an open world free form shooter, however, players take control over one of four playable characters and go rampaging through a series of serpentine maps rife with enemy units, destructible objects, and timed objectives. Each character gains experience which can be used to unlock new perks for customizing their vehicles, and like most twin-stick shooters, there’s an emphasis on replaying levels multiple times on a quest to earn the best possible score. Two player split-screen and four player online co-op are available for the entire campaign.

Assuming you can get the game to load, that is. According to this heavily trafficked thread on the official Steam forums, many users are reporting their copies of the game simply fail to start, loading to a solid black screen or crashing out to the desktop shortly when progressing past the main menu. My own copy loads and seems to play just fine, but only after clicking past an ominous-looking error message that appears every time I start it. No information about an official patch is available at this time.

Renegade Ops was previously released for the PS3 and 360 through their respective download services in late September, albeit with far fewer technical issues reported. All versions of the game currently run about $14.99 (or 1200 Microsoft Points).